The Gospel Blesses Families

Woaaaa this week was awesome, dude! (that is my surf lingo in celebration of the competitions going on at North Shore this week)

And speaking of lingo, I met the man who played Mahana's dad in Johnny Lingo a couple weeks ago. So that was pretty cool! There are famous people all over the place...

So to begin, I just want to give a shout out to my cuz Brandon for signing on with the BYU Men's Volleyball team this last week! I am so proud and excited for you :) 

So this last week, the Elders set up the Christmas trees throughout the VC. I have counted 17 brightly lit trees, and we have garland throughout the center too. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!!! Even if it is still 80 degrees every day...

Sister De Leon and I had so many great experiences at the VC this last week. We also had zone conference. It has been a week of spiritual highs! I will share one story of a miracle we had this week. This last week, I have really been focusing on prayerfully preparing for guests. I have been asking Heavenly Father to lead people to me that need my testimony, in any shape or form. We had many part-member families come in this week. I met a couple from New Mexico, and they were from the Navajo tribe! They had just gotten married and moved off the reservation there. The wife, S, was a very less-active member and has been through a lot in her life. This is her second marriage. She wanted to bring her husband, V, here to learn more about the Temple and the beliefs she grew up with. We began showing them around the Visitors' Center, but he was very quiet so we couldn't figure out what he was thinking. We decided to take him through God's Plan for His Family, a 15 minute video presentation about God's plan for us and our families, and why the temple is important. It is powerful. We showed it to them, and at the end they were emotional. We talked for a long time, testifying of God's love for us and how the Gospel Blesses Families. The spirit was so strong, and finally I asked them if a Temple Marriage was something that they wanted together. S looked at her husband with tears in her eyes and said yes. Because V grew up on the reservation, he does not have much of a religious background besides the traditions of his tribe, but he said that he wanted to learn more. He wants to come to church. He wants to meet with missionaries. They know that the Temple is where they want to go, and soon. That was a very meaningful experience to me because I truly felt God's love for this couple. Our Heavenly Father always gives us second, third and fourth chances to choose Him and His plan. To choose happiness. To choose eternal life. He loves us so much that He sent his son to provide a way for us to receive these chances to repent, change and come unto Him. I know without a doubt that this Gospel is the only way. It is the only way that we can live forever with our families, in God's presence, with happiness greater than anything we've felt before in this life. And this makes me happy :)

Sister Willardson